"Minority Report" was released in 2002. The slightly exaggerated visual effects unique to commercial films have faded. Many of the concepts mentioned in it are still imaginative in 2021. Will there really be "zero mistakes in predicting crimes" in the future? "The Prophet? Is it really possible to stop a crime by convicting someone before the crime is a fait accompli? Will there really be smart electronic spiders that can be used to check people anytime, anywhere? Is it possible to scan the eyeballs to determine the whereabouts of individuals as long as they enter and exit public places? Now let’s talk about some of the more interesting themes of the future in the film.
Who are you, the eyeball has the final say
There are clips about scanning eyeballs everywhere in the movie, not to mention that the use of various permissions in the police station requires scanning the eyeballs. When taking the subway, the door will be recognized by the device at the top of the column, and there will be countless advertisements when entering and leaving the mall. Identify you: "John Anderton, enjoy a glass of King's Stout now!"
Such technology has reached the point where identity change can only be achieved by replacing eyeballs. On the one hand, this technology can effectively lock criminals. On the other hand, it also means that everyone's identity has been locked, personal whereabouts, purchases In fact, private information such as records and interpersonal networks has long since become data. Stored under this specific "identity", it is a resource that can be efficiently used or utilized by police stations, transportation departments, commercial plazas, etc. A living person can be reduced to data. The way to switch data is to switch eyeballs, and putting on a new eyeball is equivalent to loading the previous data package.
Awareness visualization
In the movie, humans have developed a very efficient crime prevention system. At the core of this system are three prophets who can predict the crime that will happen in a certain location at a certain time in the future, as well as the offender and the victim. The prophets lie in a pool named "Temple", with various wires wrapped around their heads. These wires can convert the "prophecy" in their minds into visual and audible information, restore the scene of the murder, and let ordinary people He can see what he sees and hear what he hears. The prophet transmits a movie-like clip, with sound and images, and with details as clear as memory, but the prophet can only predict the behavior of the crime, not the intention and motive of the crime. Then the wooden balls with the names of the victims and criminals are popped up. The color of the wooden balls reflects the seriousness of the crime. The red is the most serious, which means homicide.
There are two transitions from abstract to figurative. The first time is to concretize the abstract vision in the prophet's mind into video data that can be viewed by normal people, and then further concretize it as two balls—the victim and the perpetrator. .
Further association, since such "consciousness visualization" technology can be applied to prophets, making it possible to "see" the consciousness in the human mind, why can't it be applied to ordinary people? Making everyone's consciousness visible and transparent like glass is a terrifying thing to think about, but it's not impossible.
Punishing criminals vs preventing crime, factual evidence vs prophetic oracles
In the movie, people will be arrested because they are predicted to commit a crime, even if there is no crime, they will be arrested because the prophet has predicted their crime. "The system never goes wrong," the Crime Center says repeatedly. But if a criminal is caught before he commits a crime, you never know if he actually committed a crime in the end. It's a paradox, can someone who hasn't committed a crime be called a criminal?
In this virtual future, the "temple" replaces the court, the "prophet" replaces the judge, and the moment two balls with the names of the victims and the criminals pop up, it is an irrefutable oracle.
As the film says, "Some people began to see the prophets as gods, and the power was not in the oracles themselves, but in the priests, and they even faked the oracles."
"Our approach to changing fate is fundamentally like the clergy rather than the police."
Is it still desirable to have a system that cannot be demonstrated to be true or false?
Every system has bugs, from people themselves
The seemingly perfect crime prevention system actually has hidden loopholes, that is, the "minority report". The minority report means that when the three prophets have different opinions, the system will adopt the decision-making method of "minority obeys the majority". That report will be destroyed, and only the original will remain in the prophet who produced it. The reason the CPC destroyed the minority report was because it didn't want the outside world to think the system was unreliable and that the justice system could not tolerate the slightest suspicion. However, as the FBI investigator said in the movie: "The system is perfect, I agree. If there's a flaw, it's human." So as long as someone is involved, there can be no perfect system.
Can the future be changed by individual will?
The prophet repeatedly emphasized with the protagonist: "you have a choice", but in the protagonist's story line, although he changed the choice at that specific moment with his personal will, it did not change the outcome of the matter. But at the end of the film, Rama's personal choices change the ending. The different results in these two places may refer to the future under the prophecy, which is like Schrödinger's cat, and has all kinds of possibilities. It is not entirely fatalism, nor is it entirely voluntarism.
Talent can be a blessing or a curse
The prophets in the movie were accidentally gifted, and after the talent was discovered by other humans, they were shaved, wrapped in white plastic clothes, and soaked in some kind of liquid that acts as a nutrient and conductor all day and night, every minute and every second. Work like a machine to discover new crimes. At the moment when Agatha, one of the prophets, was kidnapped by Tom, she repeatedly confirmed: "Is this now? I'm so tired, I'm tired of the future." Living in the future all day is a blessing for other human beings , but it is a burden for them. The gift of predicting the future gives them a sense of freedom, fatigue, and the fear of repeatedly confronting crime scenes. Because the violent images will be repeated in the prophet's residual thoughts. However, the staff said: "They will not feel pain, we continue to supply dopamine and endorphine. In addition, Satonin is also under control. Let them neither fall asleep nor be too awake." Such rhetoric may only be used Come to comfort and deceive other human beings, in fact, they treat the prophets like a machine, keep them running normally, make sure their hormone indicators are at normal levels, so that they can continue to work.
Electronic spider for reconnaissance
One of the most chilling things in the film is the electronic spiders, relentless, precise, orderly, even self-disciplined and organized. Wherever the police want to investigate, a full thermal scan can detect how many warm objects there are, and then release electronic spiders to confirm the identity of these people - of course, by identifying the eyeballs. These spiders can search the whole place in a short time, including the corners that humans can't reach, without missing any suspicious clues, really accurate and efficient. People living in the future have long been accustomed to being interrupted in various situations, being propped up by electronic spiders, and then being scrutinized by flashlights. It is an obligation to cooperate with the search, for which people's freedom and privacy will be compromised. Such electronic spiders are efficient and equally terrifying. They can be used by humans under human control, but as long as they have autonomous consciousness, humans are not their opponents at all.
Psychological massage shop
The movie character Rufus Luli opened a shop that seemed to teeter on the edge of the law with various hallucinatory effects. I would call it a psychotherapy shop. Similar to the difference between a massage shop and a hospital, the purpose of a psychological massage shop is not to fundamentally solve psychological problems, but to fill in the lack of psychology by providing temporary illusions to customers.
It is conceivable that in the future, people may be more willing to pay for such psychoactive drugs than to stimulate material desires. If such an industry really appears in the future and is permitted by law, the demand market will definitely be very broad.
Head copy (unlimited monthly reading)
In the future world, headgear replaces handcuffs as a new detention tool. The headgear looked much more terrifying than the handcuffs. In order to avoid the headcuff, Tom shattered the car window and started his escape. According to prison guards, those who wear the headgear will see images of their entire lives playing on a continuous loop, and all their dreams will come true. This setting is similar to Infinite Moon Reading, there is no pain, but there is no self-consciousness, and all prisoners are tortured in a dark underground cylinder, which looks like graves from the surface.
It is really reasonable to think about it. In the future, whether it is catching criminals, entertaining life, or suffering from criminal law, it will start with the brain. The brain will take the place of the body to suffer all this. The enjoyment and torture of consciousness far exceed the benefits of the body. Rates also seem to be higher. This kind of setting is equally terrifying, but it is very reasonable and feasible.
This film is adapted from the novel Minority Report by Philip Dick (1928-1982). In the era when Philip Dick was growing up, humans had just entered space, landed on the moon for the first time, and successfully created the first industrial robot. . It is hard to imagine that in the 1950s and 1960s, people were already discussing issues of technology and human ethics so deeply, surpassing other human beings for nearly a thousand years. Philip Dick's other representative short stories include "The Second Generation", "Impostor", "The Planning Bureau of Destiny", etc., waiting for people in the new era to rediscover the wonderful insights they contain.
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